The Broket Y-DNA Project

So far we are 26 participants. We need you too! Where written records will never make some connections between Brokets, Y-chromosome analysis has already and will do more and more. So please join in and connect. Confidentiality:+Read More

For the first phase of the project—up till 2014—a company called DNA Heritage analysed the samples. We chose them because of the quality of their work and their strict code of confidentiality. They never passed any of the DNA samples for further studies, whether academic or otherwise. That company was subsequently acquired by Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). They have an equally strict code of confidentiality and the quality of their work is evidenced by their being the testing partner for the National Geographic’s Genographic Project. We adhere to the principles of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2017 (GDPR) which came into force on 25 May 2018. Its primary objective is to protect against the misuse of personal data. See also the Broket Archive’s own Privacy Policy.

Method

While maintaining strict confidentiality of all living persons, we aim to provide documentary evidence for each generation of a participant stepping back from latest to earliest known ancestor.1 We indicate where evidence/proof is secondary or negative. This process puts flesh on the bones—or genes—of the FTDNA Table of Results.

Participants

A participant is a male with the surname. From the Table of Results of the participants you can see that 5 distinct Genetic Groups have so far been identified, and 6 other individuals have yet to match. It’s illuminating that a relatively uncommon surname can have so many completely different ancestral origins. The numbering of the Genetic Groups simply arose from the order that participants joined the project and have no other significance. Two of them and one currently unmatched individual belong to North America. Click on a participant’s name to assess the current documentary evidence for their ancestry:+++Genetic Group 1:+Reginald A W BROCKETT 1921-2016+P James BROCKETT 1914-98+F Neil BROCKETT 1916-78Genetic Group 2:+Leslie G P BROCKETT 1906-84+Trevor G BROCKET 1925-2001+Archibald BROCKETT 1804-1974+Ivan BROCKET 1927-86Genetic Group 3 (N America):+Ronald J BRACKETT 1927-2013+Harold H BROCKETT 1921-2001+Harold E BRACKETT 1916-81+William Leroy BROCKETT 1925-2008+Harry D BROCKETT 1928-2005+Marlin L BROCKETTE 1913-2000+Wendell R BROCKETT 1910-83+William H BROCKETT 1914-88+Elmer E BROCKETT 1913-88Genetic Group 4:+Albert BROCKETT 1920-70+Alfred E BROCKETT 1910-89Genetic Group 5 (N America):+Edward C BROCKETT 1898-1980+Frank B BROCKETT 1914-95Ungrouped participants:+Clyde N W BROCKETT 1935-2015+David M BROCKETT 1911-77+Samuel W BROCKETT 1919-98+J Duncan BROCKET d 2016+Robert BROCKETT 1905-84

Broket Y-DNA haplogroups

The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) defines a haplogroup as “a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patriline or the matriline. Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, and refinements consist of additional number and letter combinations.”2 As research develops, the definitions of haplogroups likewise develop. Broket participants currently belong to 4 Y-DNA haplogroups:

I-M253: Also known as I1—pronounced ‘eye one’. “Y-DNA haplogroup I is a European haplogroup, representing nearly one-fifth of the population. It is almost non-existent outside of Europe, suggesting that it arose in Europe. I1-M253 et al has highest frequency in Scandinavia, Iceland, and northwest Europe. In Britain, haplogroup I-M253 et al is often used as a marker for ‘invaders’, Viking or Anglo-Saxon.”3 I-M253 is a primary branch of Haplogroup I, occurring at greatest frequency in Scandinavia and has been present in Europe since ancient times.4++++Q: “Y-DNA haplogroup Q arose in Central Asia and migrated through the Altai/Baikal region of northern Eurasia into the Americas. Today it is found in North Eurasia, with some exemplars in European populations. The Q-M3 sub-group is almost exclusively associated with Native American populations.5 Current knowledge about Q-M242 is that it is: “the predominant Y-DNA haplogroup among Native Americans and several peoples of Central Asia and Northern Siberia. It is also the predominant Y-DNA of the Akha tribe in northern Thailand and the Dayak people of Indonesia.”6 FTDNA describes haplogroup Q as: “the lineage that links Asia and the Americas. This lineage is found in North and Central Asian populations, as well as native Americans. Among European populations, haplogroup Q is most frequently found in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. This lineage is believed to have originated in Central Asia and migrated through the Altai/Baikal region of northern Eurasia into the Americas.”7 Research into this haplogroup is ongoing and FTDNA have a Y-DNA Haplogroup Q-M242 Project which welcomes new members.8++++R-M198: A subclade of R1a1a common in Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia.9 “More than 10% of men in a region extending from South Asia to Scandinavia share a common ancestor in hg R1a-M420, and the vast majority fall within the R1a1-M17/M198 subclade.”10++++R-M269: “Haplogroup R1b (R-M343) is the most frequently occurring Y-chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe and the most common haplogroup in the genetic genealogy databases. R1b1a2 (R-M269) is the dominant branch of R1b in Western Europe.”11 “Western Europe is dominated by the downstream subclades of R1b1a – especially R1b1a1a2 (R-M269; known previously as R1b1a2).”12

Genetic Distance

Genetic Distance “is the number of differences, or mutations, between two sets of results. A genetic distance of zero means there are no differences in the results being compared against one another, i.e. an exact match.”13 This is almost identical to the definition of ISOGG.14 Genetic Distance 1 therefore means that one marker differs, and so on. Genetic Distance helps to determine the ‘time to most recent common ancestor’ (TMRCA). But 11/12 and 24/25 matches, even though Genetic Distance 1, are insufficient for our purposes. More markers are required: 37 is sufficient. Even then—as also with 67 and 111 markers—mismatches do not provide an exact figure for TMRCA, since mutations are random, and can only give a probability. FTDNA places Genetic Distances 1, 2 and 3 on 37 markers, i.e. 36/37, 35/37 and 34/37, as “within the range of most well-established surname lineages in Western Europe”,15 but not Genetic Distance 4. For this reason, we don’t normally include participants with more than 3 mismatches in the same Genetic Group. However, the relationship of genetic distance to time can vary widely. It has been said that 1 mismatch on 37 markers indicates that “two men share direct paternal-line ancestry statistically in fewer than 8 generations”.16 But in other cases, like Wendell Brockett, several mutations can occur within 5 generations.

Research into DNA is of course highly scientific and its application highly technical, such that lay people simply interested in its value for genealogy can easily get lost. Many other online DNA surname projects exist with useful information for lay people, like the Warburton project.

Genetic Groups

As we suggest above under Genetic Distance, our criterion for membership of a Genetic Group is a participant whose results normally have no more than 3 mismatches from those of at least one other in the Group.

The earliest known ancestors of participants belonging to 3 of the Broket Genetic Groups (1, 2 and 4) came from England and represent 3 of the main current English Brocket Groupings—the Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and South London Groupings. More participants are needed from Scotland to clarify the Groupings there.

Genetic Group 3 is a North American Group and contains participants who trace their descent from the 17th C immigrant John Brockett of New Haven. Results from descendants of two or more of his sons match at genetic distances of 0-3, thus validating their lines from him.

More on the individual Genetic Groups in the project will follow. Please make sure to check back in a while or else send us a message and we’ll let you know when the page is published.